The Indispensable Corkscrew
Ah, the humble corkscrew. Where would we be without it?
Probably banging a bottle against a wall in a shoe (tried it, doesn’t work), or desperately pushing the cork into the bottle (not guaranteed either).
This little tool comes in all shapes and sizes. Most known is the trusty waiter’s friend, with its neat serrated knife and single or double pull action. But there’s also the big levered rabbit one that clasps the neck while pilfering the cork in a swift down and up motion, the dubious electric ones, the 2 armed ones that never seem to work very well and are a holiday home’s top choice, and of course the original: the screw held in a bit of wood.
So where did it come from? Who was the genius that came up with the idea?
Well, the first patent was awarded in 1795 on this very day to Reverend Samuel Henshall. By incorporating a sort of metal button at the top of the screw below the handle, the cork would compress against the button and then turn with the screw thus breaking the seal and forcing the cork out of the bottle.
Clever!
It wasn’t until 1882 that Carl F.A. Wienke of Germany patented the Waiter’s Friend, that ever so handy iteration that we should all have multiples of. (In fact Wine Goods does a lovely and functional one from Murano which is well worth having - see here.) This style uses a lever to hoist the cork out once the screw is inserted into the cork and is well loved by waiters and people at home alike.
Since then, as mentioned, there have been many ostensibly better and certainly fancier variations, each purporting to reinvent the screw.
“A corkscrew collector is called a helixophile”
But to my mind simplicity has a lot going for it.
Turning a well forged iron into a cork and removing it with a single pull is extremely satisfying (when you know, you know). And when it’s a tool that you can pop in your back pocket and use whenever and wherever, even better.
Which is what the corkscrews, aka sommelier knives, from La Forge de Laguiole do. Expensive? Yes. But each individual piece is of the highest quality and meant to be something you keep forever and use again and again, on bottle after bottle.
Crafted by expert artisans in the south of France in L’Aubrac, these are individual works of art and skill. And the difference is palpable, from the weight in the hand, to the ease of its use. And fundamentally they have an understated elegance so each one is personal to its owner, worthy of opening the finest of bottles while at the same time quite happy being popped in a pocket for a bottle of plonk with a picnic.
Because wine is not only the liquid, it’s the opener too, for how else can you get at the wine?
…unless it’s a screwcap.
